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A conversation on school bus communication and discipline goes ’round and ’round, and a new director of transportation says he is addressing the issues repeatedly raised over the last couple months.

The topic of school bus communication, as well as discipline on the bus, was brought up again at the Feb. 24 Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting, a topic raised back in December of 2019 as well as January 2020.

Former school board director Brenda Covington, who has brought up the topic in previous meetings, asked for an update on the topic at the Feb. 24 meeting.

Superintendent Paul Turner reiterated a point he made at a January meeting, that the school was looking into $70,000-plus radio systems for the school buses to improve communication.

At that January meeting, Turner also said that school bus communication was being improved by cell phones being assigned to bus routes, rather than drivers, so that even if there were a substitute, the school would be able to contact the driver for whatever purpose, such as to locate a specific student.

Covington, asking about how bullying on buses has been addressed, was answered by Lake Roosevelt Elementary Principal Lisa Lakin, Junior/Senior High Principal Kirk Marshlain, as well as the new Director of Transportation Tim Rasmussen.

Rasmussen said that in his three weeks in the position, every time a driver has turned in a discipline slip on an occurance, it has been followed up on, and that he is in regular communication with Lakin and Marshlain.

Covington said that it was good these changes were taking place, although she wanted more information such as the threshold for reporting an incident, for example, if a slip is filled out every time a student hits another student, or if a student says something “ugly” to another.

Rasmussen, who is also the athletic director at LR, took on the recently vacated director of transportation role.

Turner said part of the rationale for combining the two positions was that athletics and transportation often have to coordinate for trips to sporting events. A cost savings is also found in providing benefits for one employee rather than two.

Turner said that so far combining the positions has been working out well and felt that Rasmussen was covering the discipline issue well.